Resident in Australia, this well-constructed little backgeared, screwcutting and gap-bed lathe is unusual in having helical backgears and might have been in production circa 1900 to 1930. Other Australian-made lathes are also known to have been fitted with helical backgears including some examples of the range offered by Purcell, the "Keen" and another "Unknown" shown here - though both the latter are of an entirely different design and unlikely to be associated with the model shown here.
Examples of other helical-backgeared lathes include the American Ames-Chicopee, Brazilian South Bend 9-inch copy by Sanches Blanes, Indian REW and Coronet, German Lorch AV1-L, the interesting Schlitt, Boly 5LZ, LE and Types L, the English Smart & Brown Model M and 1024, Spanish Gurka, Swiss Brequet, Swedish Essbeco DBC-810 and Almkvist L400 Multi-function machine, French "SM", the "Trident" of unknown origin and many examples of the well-known "Taiwanese Generic".